The Oxen

[altivo]

CHRISTMAS EVE, and twelve of the clock.
  'Now they are all on their knees,'
An elder said as we sat in a flock
  By the embers in hearthside ease.

We pictured the meek mild creatures where
  They dwelt in their strawy pen,
Nor did it occur to one of us there
  To doubt they were kneeling then.

So fair a fancy few would weave
  In these years! Yet, I feel,
If someone said on Christmas Eve,
  'Come; see the oxen kneel

'In the lonely barton by yonder coomb
  Our childhood used to know,'
I should go with him in the gloom,
  Hoping it might be so.

--Thomas Hardy, 1915

Pretty legends associated with Christmas tell us that the cattle all kneel at midnight in honor of the birth of Christ, or that the farm animals can speak between midnight and dawn of Christmas morning. English poet and author Thomas Hardy was often pessimistic and skeptical, yet his verse frequently displays this yearning for the old stories to actually be true.

Comments

[hgryphon.livejournal.com]

Raining here, too... But, you know, Oregon and all...

'Tis a good poem. Even if it's a name from my disasterous term of "Survey of English Literature..." ;)

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Thomas Hardy was a very fine writer in my opinion. He's one of my favorite poets.

[heavens-steed.livejournal.com]

The possibility of talking animals is not an idea that is all that uncommon to Christian myth and legend. There are many stories of saints speaking to animals, most familiar of these would be St. Francis. I've also heard that some Christians purport a possibility of talking animals in the garden of Eden and before the Fall because of the communication Adam had with the animals and also because of biblical accounts of the Serpent and Balaam's donkey. John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist movement, believed that animals will be given human intelligence and speech in heaven so that they may be able to fully understand and participate in worship.

I'm not sure if I can believe all that or if I have any reason to believe it at all, but I definitely yearn that something like that was true. Or even better, I wish there was a -real- Narnia :)

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Yes. And it's interesting that the opposite is true as well. When Lewis first published the Narnia stories, some fundamentalist types were greatly offended by the talking animals. Because the bible says man has dominion over all the animals, yet in Narnia they appeared as equals to man, I guess.

[pioneer11.livejournal.com]

Lets examine this concept via the theology.

God can do anything he wants.

Christ came to teach us to relinquish power and to love.

Therefore:

If you prayed and asked God to let animals talk, to tell us
what they were thinking...

*later when the wolves shut up and justify carnivores and the
horses shut up after justifiying running and rutting and the
mice shut up after justifying why they stole your gift
basket of cheeses and wines...*

Maybe not...

^_^

Merry Christmas hoss!

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Merry Christmas to you too. And I still wish my horse could talk to me, even if it meant she was going to cuss me out for something. ;)

[pioneer11.livejournal.com]

Nah, she'd not cuss you out, you seem a goodly sort.

^_^